iGEMers should never be restricted in laboratory. To solve a real-life problem, STEP was created for cellular immunotherapy. But will it serve people in a responsible way? How can we perfect it by involving the world into our project? What shall we do for the public? Inspired by the idea of opening science, we delivered several lectures to students from kindergarten to college, from Shanghai to Canton. A video, a set of cartoon ‘tuanzi’ and a reportage were created to help the public better understand our project and the true living condition of sci-researchers in China. We contacted experts and stakeholders to help us add social, ethical and juristic considerations to our project. Professionals from synthetic biology, pharmaceutical industry and computer science also put touches into the design and application of STEP.

Synthetic biology has its unique magic: every element works together for one purpose in the system we design, just like an imaginative idea can act as a magnet to draw people together. Involving the public stays on in our mind. In this spirit, we delivered a set of lectures and mini-labs to students of all ages to unlock a world of synthetic biology for juniors. Excitedly, vibrant students from High School Affiliated to Fudan University applauded the idea of synthetic biology and newly established an iGEM team on our instruction. In addition, inspired by the principle of opening science, we interviewed Ms. Shi, a doctoral student in pharmacy, revealing the true living and studying condition of common sci-researchers in China to people outside the industry. Finally, some artwork was created to help explain our STEP system to the public, saturated in the two-way constructing process of humanity and technology. In our wildest dream of childhood, there always existed a profession named ‘scientist’. But only a few of us hold on to it ultimately. Researchers are always a mystery to the public. In public mind they are a group of people burying themselves in labs and isolated from normal society. Nevertheless, the truth is far from that while the public has started to think differently. Rooted in China, we focus on the topic Society, Research, Researchers to reveal the true living condition of sci-researchers in China today.

In the meeting with Shi, a typical doctoral student of pharmacy, we discover the change of public attitude towards the field of research. What’s their working pattern? How do they step into this field? What do their future look like? Her one-step-at-a-time experience gave the answer. To propagate synthetic biology and share the fun of iGEM with future synthetic biologists, we organized a series of activities and lectures to students of all ages. Kindergarten: A mini-lab For kids in kindergarten, we host a mini-biolab to introduce some basic concepts regarding microorganisms in an interesting way. Moreover, we helped the lovely children cultivate their interest in synthetic biology as well as inform them of the significance of keeping personal hygiene. PS: Safety is guaranteed during this activity. Canton primary school: Volunteer teaching When our team is working as volunteer teacher in rural areas of Canton, we also always bear the responsibility of sharing the idea of iGEM to more people. In Canton, to broaden their horizon to a grander world, our deliver introduced our project and some basic situations of iGEM to hundreds of seated students from primary school and junior high school. Though due to the limit of equipment and knowledge, they could not be iGEMers now, we have planted seeds of synthetic biology in their naïve heart which might grow up to a glorious tree one day in the future. Senior High School: A newly set-up iGEM team As for senior high school, we organized some lectures to introduce synthetic biology and our project. Firstly, we held a lecture in High School Affiliated to Fudan University (FDFZ). And this lecture gave us unexpected pleasure. FDFZ is a well-known high school in Shanghai having a long history. And thanks to the abundant resource of Fudan University, the students of FDFZ can get easy access to top theory and technology in the science field and the atmosphere of exploring is really thick there. Thus, we reached a biology teacher in FDFZ discussing about holding a lecture in FDFZ and the possibility of establishing an iGEM high school team to help them participate in this creative competition. To attract more students to our lecture, we prepared beautiful posters for every classroom and made sufficient plans. The outcome is more than fantastic. The number of students that came to our lecture is far over our expectation, and they were all eager to know iGEM and how to take part in it. Thus, we organized two interviews together with a teacher of FDFZ to select suitable students for future competition. In the interview, we asked about lots of things such as their basic knowledge of modern biology, experience in laboratory, the understanding of iGEM and their current ideas. To our surprise, some had attended the John Hopkins Summer Camp and had the experience of PCR, Western Blot and etc. And some had learned pharmacodynamic evaluation, mice emergency immunization, flow cytometry, labeling fluorescent antibody and so on. And their ideas were also innovative concerning Chinese traditional herb, malaria, controlling blood pressure, and regulation of K+. As for the division of labor, they also have their considerations. Some prefer wet laboratory, and others would like to major in modeling or visual designing…… We not only shared basic knowledge of synthetic biology, lab skills and safety rules with them in our mini-class, but also achieved a lot from them- discussing ethic and law issues in regard to advanced technology. What impressed us most is their passion on practice with their own hands. The knowledge they’ve learnt in class inspired fantastic ideas, while we provide a stage to help them realize. Welcome, new iGEMers! It’s a really successful try, and we did help our next generation not only know about iGEM and synthetic biology but assist them to become one of us, to make them enjoy the interest of it. Now, a promising iGEM team is coming into formation and we will also support them theoretically and practically. The world is changing. Except this, we were also invited to Shanghai Shixi High School, a famous high school to deliver a lecture named Synthesis + Biology = Synthetic Biology to expand their view. University: iGEM club During our summer vacation, we attended a sharing meeting with BIOS (Biology Intensive Orientation Summer) students who were learning basic biological technique to discuss our project and absorb positive opinion to polish our STEP system. Despite their relatively poor experience in research, but their fancy thoughts did inspire us and make our project more charming. In Fudan University, iGEM exists as a club. In this semester’s giant meeting of all clubs, iGEM has attracted much attention from students of all majors and some showed great interest in iGEM. Through our introduction, they had a deeper understanding of iGEM and synthetic biology and got deeply fascinated by the idea. It’s predictable that next year, there will be more students fond of synthetic biology taking part in iGEM to share the fun. Are you attracted by our mascot on the poster? It’s a set of "Tuanzi"（团子）！Really cute , aren’t they? Each represents one of our team member and instructor. Pipette, protein, E.coli, culture medium, camera, computer engineering… As part of our team culture, Tuanzi are our little bonus, for us and for other iGEMers. They were printed on sweaters and key rings, delivered to friends, instructors and others who gave us a hand during our preparation. Also we will bring them to Giant Jamboree. Thanks to them, more and more people come to know our team, realizing that iGEM involves more than wet-lab students. No matter what you are responsible for- human practice, modeling, art design and so on- we wish to express gratitude to every member’s effort in iGEM. As a cutting-edge therapy, cellular immunology is really a hot spot. Mostly people only know it by the media, but hardly understand how it works. To make the public get acquaintance with the STEP system and how it comes to our mind, an animated video was created. Producing a video helps us reflect on the whole project design as well as plays an educational role.

What’s the connection between porcelain and STEP? We came to a workshop and made a STEP plate with our own hands. As a traditional Chinese art, it contains philosophy from our ancestor. Round and smooth, the porcelain plate serves people as a container, while it would easily hurt us when broken into pieces. Just like our system, it’s never easy to create one and make it serve the public for the right purpose.

When developing a therapeutic project for cancer, it’s not only the technical issues that need to concern about, but also ethical and political issues. Though China have earned a large number of research achievements in the field of cellular immunotherapy, till now, none has been approved or applied in clinical treatment. The question stays on in our mind- why there is a lack of ethical and political considerations in China, regarding this new therapy? What can we do to make a change? For this purpose, we stepped out of the lab, contacting professionals in the field of ethic and policy, to find out the answer. Also, Dr. Xu, an oncologist of Fudan Univ. Cancer Hospital, explained the approving process of current clinical trial of cellular immunotherapy to us. What’s more, we received a phone call from National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, after contacting them by e-mail, which explains the regulations we concerned about. In our meeting with Dr. Jie Yin(link), an expert in medical ethic, she admitted that the main issue concerned with our project is safety, considering its high cost and risk. Thus the government will give top priority to its approval. For the particularity of cancer patients who are at the end of their life, cellular immunotherapy served as a last resort. Patients flooded into it, striving for a chance to survive. We were reminded that there are certain clinical indications that need to be satisfied before a clinical trial, which made us reflect on a fairer distribution of medical resources. In China, collective consciousness always plays the leading role on the historical and social stage, covering the light of Spirituality Concern on the value of individual life. Compared with the unprecedented hot market, the lack of ethical consciousness should receive more attention. We called for the existence of humanity in this “technology & market first” society, truly benefiting every single patient. Just in early October, we received an official phone call from National Health Commission, answering our concerns in the e-mail. Its official firmly declared, till now, no institute or enterprise is permitted to apply a clinical treatment with cellular immunotherapy, while several clinical trials have been approved. Through our research on policies in the field of cellular immunotherapy in China, we discovered that the attitude of government is quite vague. For years, regulations concerned have swung chaotically from encouraging drug-innovation to strengthening supervision. Yao, an expert in law of health, showed his worries towards the lack of a special committee responsible for cellular immunotherapy. He analyzed the deriving history of regulations concerned, optimistic about its application prospects in China. It would be a good idea to have an outline of the current ethical and political situation in China, he suggested.

In this paper, we discussed current ethical and political problems in the field of cellular immunotherapy, comparing regulations concerned in China with the ones in other developed countries. It is important for people in the field to be aware that only with refined legal system and ethical instructions can this advanced therapy truly work. This kind of insight into thinking about national conditions and the function of interdisciplinary communication was essential to our project design and execution.

Through our Bench-to-Bed approach, we take every effort to make our STEP system perfect and responsible for the world, involving experts in different field into our project. Initially, it was created for cellular immunotherapy. After contacting pathologists and experts from pharmaceutical industry, we paid close attention to cancer treatment. Under the conduction from Prof. Huang and other computational biology experts, we intensify our modeling and develop a distinct and persuasive model on molecular interaction and system output. What’s more, response from ethicists, jurists, hospital administrators and National Health Commission helped us add ethical and juristic considerations to our STEP system, leading to a paper investigating the major interest of cellular immunotherapy in China. An Oncologist responsible for clinical trials of immunotherapy also provided a precious view on our target identification in anti-tumor molecule work. Professionals from Shanghai iDrug Center and pharmaceutical industry proved the application prospects of STEP. To clarify the integration of our Human Pracitces through every step of our project, an outline flowchart was made. Check it below~